We just got a check from my mother-in-law, and guess what? She has her driver’s license printed right there at the top of her check, alongside her name and address. I can’t even begin to express how bad an idea this is. I guess it’s a good bit better than including her social security numebr, [...]

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I’ve recently been travelling by air a good bit more than I used to, and I’m in the market for a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones to go along with my iPod. I’m more interested in quality/performance over price, although I don’t want to break the bank, either. Obviously, Bose is a well known company [...]

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In case you haven’t noticed, FiveCentNickel has a new advertiser — Nationwide — featured at the top of the right sidebar. Beyond placing an ad, they also asked me to take a look at their new RetirAbility calculator and post my thoughts. So here goes…

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Even in the age of online billpay, it’s still sometimes necessary to write a check. In our case, the check-writing ritual is most often associated with miscellaneous school expenses (PTO fund raisers, pre-paying for hot lunches, etc.) as well as things like Cub Scout expenses or sports registration. Even though we go through checks more [...]

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Here’s a quick look at some of my favorite posts from a year ago this past week:
• Money Saving Ideas – Nineteen tips or saving money.
• Call 411 for Free – Another money saving tip… Get free info on your cell phone.
• More Online Financial Calculators – Another nice collection of financial calculators.

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Here’s a quick look at some of the posts that caught my eye over the past week…

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At long last, here’s the fourth and final part of my mini-series on saving on medical care. The article upon which this is based was writen by Sid Kirchheimer and originally published in Bottom Line/Personal. Today we’ll be covering tips #7 and #8. Here goes…

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FiveCentNickel participated in four carnivals this week. Here they are along with links to my articles that were included in each.
The Festival of Frugality included “Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for a Discount.”
The Carnival of Personal Finance included “Cashing in Our CDs (or Not).”
The Best of Me Symphony included “Are you saving enough for your [...]

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You’re probably going to hear/read about this a million times before the dust settles, but today the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 12,000 for the first time ever. For those of you that are into this sort of thing, the actual closing value was 12,011.73. This is the ninth record close in just over [...]

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How’s this for enterprising? In case you haven’t heard, you can once again brings small containers of liquids and gels through airport security as long as you put the containers in a clear plastic bag. Well, while I was going through security this morning at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, I noticed that a steady stream [...]

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